


speaking of strange

by StormySkiesAhead



Series: speak to those who travel the skies (see what you learn) [3]
Category: Primeval, various - Fandom
Genre: Albertosaurus, Dinosaurs, Family Bonding, Feathered dinosaurs, Gen, Moondancers, Telepathic Bond, Werewolves, archosauripathy, daspletosaurus, some light angst on the side, this is set after tvok and birdie ch 12 and before ch 13 of each, yes i did tags for my oc's and the dinosaurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-02-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:09:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22579888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormySkiesAhead/pseuds/StormySkiesAhead
Summary: There's not much to say, when it comes to them.Except for the fact that the most friendly pair between their two teams (and this is a secret that Stephen doesn't keep particularly well) met with a surprise attack, claws and teeth, and Shoshannah trying to diffuse the tension by running into a tree.It works surprisingly well.-Set after chapter twelve of both the voice of kings and a little birdie told me, here's The Cousin Reveal in all its chaotic glory, with Stephen to bear witness.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: speak to those who travel the skies (see what you learn) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602481
Kudos: 1





	speaking of strange

**Author's Note:**

> this is okay?

Shoshannah settles into the long flight by smoothing down mental split ends and reaching across the network for Cutter and Stephen. The former narrows his eyes in the window seat, and leans forwards.

_ ‘What are we thinking about now?’ _

Shoshannah wants to reply with a thousand different things, ranging from  _ do we think they’re all still alive, whenever they are _ to  _ how do we know if they’re coming back or not _ to  _ do we think Helen’s still out there _ to  _ what was she trying to do? _

The last is what she goes with. Cutter shrugs his shoulders.

_ ‘I’d assume, from the repeated mention of 333, she probably attempted to wipe out humanity at its start, with Austrolopithecus. The fact that we’re still around-’ _

_ ‘Suggests they stopped her in time,’ _ Stephen replies,  _ ‘Which also suggests, from a lack of remains, that either the Future Predators got to Helen and them, first, or they’re marooned millions of years ago.’ _

Shoshannah wants to scream, and start looking in a thousand places again, wants to poke her head into every anomaly she sees and wail until she finds them, safe and sound.

_ ‘Hopefully, somewhere less dangerous than the Future,’ _ Stephen continues,  _ ‘But that does raise the question- had she succeeded, would we have known? Or would the timeline have split and would she have kept galavanting around in someone else’s universe?’ _

Shoshannah digs her heels into that argument and refuses to think  _ he promised he promised he promised _ like she did the first time she got left behind. She’s older, now, and she  _ needs _ to be wiser, and while her country might not need her anymore, she’s still needed  _ somewhere. _ She’s good enough.

Cutter swings an arm over her reassuringly, and Shoshannah muffles her sobbing into an airline pillow.

She’s still not over it.

* * *

Gabriel’s glad Zanna is willing to run interference.

He’s probably not going to leave his wolf skin for a while, just in case. Honey looks on, concerned, and Gabriel flicks his tail over his nose and sighs.

_ “My cousin’s coming into town,” _ he says,  _ “She doesn’t know I exist. So. That’s not going to be fun to have to explain.” _

_ “Oh, ouch,” _ Honey replies, nosing at Gabriel’s whole body with her immense snout. Gabriel snorts and budges over as requested. Clementine, who’s getting big enough to actually feel heavy on his back, squeaks.

_ “Stop MOVING,” _ the baby demands, and buries her little head in his fluff again. She hasn’t lost her baby coat, not yet, anyways, and it really does feel like he’s being scolded by a week old chicken.

_ “Best of luck,” _ Charlie offers from his place high above the chaos. The Hesperonychus has shed his juvenile coat for black and orange feathers, and he looks more like an oriole than ever.

_ “Agreed,” _ Stratus says,  _ “If you need help, we’ll bail you out.” _

* * *

Shoshannah dodges her second cousin at the airport. Zanna’s always been very secretive, and she’s definitely been more so as of late, but Shoshannah has a job to do and she won’t let her curiosity distract her from it.

“Shoshannah, pup, will you  _ listen _ to me for  _ one _ second-” her cousin snarls, grabbing her around the arm. Shoshannah flips out, if she’s being honest with herself, kicking out with her hind feet once she shifts. Zanna, ever calm, cool, and collected, simply grabs her heavy body by the scruff of her neck, and turns Shoshannah to face her.

“You know Zehavi works with you,” she says, “Because our argument put us on different continents.”

Shoshannah nods. Zehavi Sokol is quiet, in the background, and isn’t legally supposed to be there, but she’s good at hiding, and no matter how much it hurts her, she’s one of the few that wears a telepathic blocker around her wrist. Shoshannah wriggles out of the older Moondancer’s grip and flags down a taxi in a hurry. Zanna doesn’t say whatever she was intending to say.

They stop a little out of the way past the Boston division’s base. Stephen walks with her.

Shoshannah smells something almost familiar, and sees a hulking shape through the trees, a little smaller than herself. She’s not going to let whatever it is hurt  _ any _ of her people, no matter who or what it is, and pounces.

* * *

Gabriel is making his way through the woods on another run when the wind is knocked right out of him. There are teeth, and a massive, dark, snarling shape. He feels jaws close on nothing but fur, and realizes tiredly that Zanna must not have warned his cousin in time.

He’s bowled over onto his back, belly in the air, the larger wolf snarling. Fortunately, she seems to only be used to surprise attacks, which means any usual form of inter-wolf fighting is probably something she’s unused to.

Which means, when Gabriel shoves with his hind legs and flips himself over, she goes flying.

_ “Will you calm down?” _ he growls. There’s a low sound like the rumble of thunder, and he wags his tail at Stratus’s entrance.

The Daspletosaurus snorts.

_ “This is the cousin that you were worried about?” _ she asks,  _ “No wonder.” _

* * *

Shoshannah stares. The other wolf carries on a pleasant conversation with the tyrannosaur, and turns back towards Shoshannah, tail held high and posture stiff.

Shoshannah… doesn’t feel great about this. It  _ is _ her fault, that much is obvious. Fortunately, the other wolf doesn’t seem to be very hurt, but she-

Shoshannah has a nasty gouge from her cousin’s claws down her side, and while they’re probably fading rapidly, she expects some bruises on her stomach.

She doesn’t really know what she’s supposed to do, here. She’s screwed up- a lot- unless-

Shoshannah drops into a play bow, and begins fidgeting, before breaking into a run.

She makes it about ten steps before she slams head-first into a tree.

“Holy  _ shit _ , are you okay?” the other wolf asks, shifting as he scampers over. The tyrannosaur is right about them being cousins- this pup looks like a dead ringer for their grandfather, down to the impressive height they’d all gotten from Great-Grandma Leah. His eyes are darker than hers, and he’s bigger, that much is for sure (which begs the question as to why his wolf-shape is smaller- Shoshannah knows well enough that height is no confirmed indicator of your wolf shape’s size, but there is usually a correlation), probably almost two meters in height to her own one-eighty-two centimeters.

And he’s sweet, too, helping her up sheepishly.

“Sorry,” Shoshannah finds herself saying, “I was worried for Stephen.”

“That’s a half-assed apology at best, but I’m sorry for foot-slamming you,” he replies, “My name’s Gabriel. I’m guessing you’re Shoshannah- they warned me you’d be a little…”

“Unstable?” she offers, smile pinched.

“Volatile,” Gabriel replies, and shifts back. Shoshannah follows.

_ “Care to do this properly?” _ she asks, play-bowing again. Gabriel tosses his head (so much like hers it kind of hurts to look at) and laughs, but returns the gesture.

This time, he’s the one to start running.

* * *

They run and run and run for about five hours. Shoshannah tires faster than he does, but Gabriel’s never been one to be rude and keep running when someone else is clearly  _ very _ done. They collapse back in the tyrannosaur pen, side by side, panting. David walks into the pen after them. Gabriel thumps his tail and shifts back.

“So this is-”

“Doctor Azose, I figured,” David says, flopping down onto the ground and staring at the other wolf, who rolls and shifts and splays out onto the floor with a groan.

“Not used to running like that, I take it?”

“No…” she replies, “I- how did you-”

“I am very much used to that kind of running,” Gabriel replies, “Sorry for scratching you, too.”

“Oh, no big deal,” Shoshannah says, “I heal fast.”

“Same here,” Gabriel says, “By the way, the three doofuses looking at us like we’re the best entertainment they’re ever going to get are Stratus, Honey, and Clementine. Stratus is a sub-adult Daspletosaurus. Honey is a sub-adult Albertosaurus. Clementine is a baby Daspletosaurus.”

“Are they  _ torosus _ or  _ horneri _ ?” a man with a cane asks Gabriel blinks. This must be Professor Cutter.

“We’re thinking  _ torosus _ ?” he says, “Zach is, at least. I’m here to keep people calm and happy and act as a negotiator, I’m not here for identification.”

By the time the sun’s begun to creep up in the sky, they’ve moved from this innocuous conversation to more… heavy ones.

* * *

“Do you ever feel like you’re not good enough to be here, though?” she asks, head against the feathers of Honey’s side. The Albertosaurus perks up, concerned.

“Not really,” Gabriel says, “I mean, sometimes, obviously, but I’m getting the feeling that this is more an omnipresent thing for you.”

Cutter’s long gone, but Hewitt is still there, watching curiously.

“Yeah,” Shoshannah says, “I mean, I think it started- what, when my bio dad left, probably. My mom and I kicked him out when I was about five or so years old, but- but he fought like hell to get me for as much time as he could, and then he just… didn’t show up. I tracked him down a couple of years back- I was about fourteen- and had a proper yell at him, but-”

“But it didn’t help all that much.”

“Actually, it helped a  _ lot, _ ” Shoshannah says, “It was- it helped remind me that he left because he was a piece of garbage, not because  _ I _ was. And I, uh- I was getting better with the team, too, but now-”

Her breath hitches. She doesn’t know  _ why _ she’s telling her cousin all of these things. Maybe this is what a Moondancer is supposed to feel like- not off-putting like Zehavi or Zanna does, not thrown into their work like Mum is-

“S’not that,” Gabriel replies, “I’ve gotten used to comforting people. For some of us, it’s instinct. For others, it takes a bit more effort. Mom always made sure I knew what I was doing. Probably saved my life, a couple of times.”

Shoshannah can feel hurt behind those words, and sits up. She’s taken so much time already, and she wants to help, too, doesn’t want to feel  _ useless- _

“Hey,” Gabriel says, “No, we’re not going to do that now. I’ve got my own issues, yes, but you have yours, too, and you’ve still got stuff to say, don’t you?”

Shoshannah wants to keep a lid on herself, mostly out of spite, but it all keeps spilling out anyways.

“I kind of… clung to father figures as best I could, really. There were my research supervisors back in uni, and then there was the Professor, and then there was Lester, too, but then Dad- Danny- showed up. And the thing about him is- was- is- uhm,” Shoshannah says, “He’s ride-or-die. He started dating my Mum, after the whole thing with the future creature. And when Helen took out the ARC, everyone’s sense of safety gets shattered, and then there’s Danny, who shows up because he’s curious and my Mum asked him to and then he  _ flew a helicopter into an anomaly _ . And I just sort of… started clinging, and normally someone would push me away at this point, but he never did, you know? I started calling him Dad and he just… rolled with it. And then, a couple of weeks ago, we found adoption paperwork in his sock drawer.”

“That’s not all, is it?” Gabriel asks, and how is he this perceptive? Shoshannah realizes she’s been broadcasting, and hems everything back in on instinct.

“No,” she says, after a long pause, “It’s really not. They promised they’d come back, you know? Him and Connor and Abby. And I’m sort of- I’m sort of the only spoke in the wheel. Becker’s there too, of course, but I’m the only Moondancer, so the connections are mine first and any other telepath’s second. And it’s a dangerous mission, and one-third of  _ my _ people are missing, and then, just…”

“Snap.”

“Snap,” Shoshannah agrees, “I’m sorry about before. I flipped out.”

“No, I get it,” Gabriel says, “You have no idea how much I get it. Though, if it had been me, you’d probably be in the hospital at this point.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Shoshannah says, too tired to laugh, but with a smile still firmly in place upon her face. She elbows Gabriel, and feels her eyelids close, too heavy to support themselves under the weight of her great exhaustion.

* * *

Shoshannah doesn’t leave Boston for another two weeks, too wrapped up in tyrannosaurs and microraptors and running and running and  _ running _ with her cousin. Zanna pops in one more time, to watch and worry. Shoshannah knows that Zehavi’s going to leave whenever she’s asked to, just like Zanna has, but she also knows Zehavi will break it to her gently.

It still  _ hurts. _ Shoshannah’s come to terms with the fact that she’ll never be able to deal with people leaving like she should. And Zehavi isn’t leaving because Shoshannah isn't good enough, she’s leaving because the strongest Seer that the world has ever seen has told her there’s a specific time to leave.

Shoshannah leaves, too, but she leaves to go speak with Aviv herself, and brings Gabriel in tow. The other wolf looks fearful at the sight of so many werewolves in one place-

_ ‘Who hurt you?’ _ Shoshannah thinks,  _ ‘To make you fear our duty so?’ _

He stands tall, though, and enters the hall by Shoshannah’s side, teeth sharp and shining as they should be. He’s not afraid of Aviv Hadar with her shattered-glass eyes, the ones that, when she Sees, look like anomalies placed directly into the sockets.

Shoshannah wonders, if she stuck her fingers through, would she be transported to the end of space-time like the one these beautiful and terrible eyes have seen?

“Hello, cubs,” Aviv says, standing. She has bigger shoulders than Shoshannah’s ever seen on a woman beyond herself in real life- the shoulders of someone used to having weight rested upon them.

“Hello, cousin,” Shoshannah replies, for she may only have the smallest traces of Pascal blood in her veins, visible only in the curve of her eyes and the light-colored fur on her cheeks as a wolf, but it’s still there, and Major Aviv Hadar most certainly married a Pascal.

Shoshannah’s only come to see that Aviv is real, that she has claim to her stories of Sight, but the werewolf looks right at her, and smiles.

“You weren’t lied to, sweet thing.”

There’s only one thing Aviv could be referring to, in that moment. Shoshannah bursts into tears on the spot- tears of grief or tears of relief, she doesn’t quite know.

“How long?” she asks.

“Not long for me,” Aviv replies, “A bit longer for you, but not by as much as you think.”

Cutter moves to ask his own questions, and Aviv’s eyes turn from anomalies in the sockets where her eyes are supposed to be to red, and then to brown. His questions aren’t for the future, but for the past, after all.

Gabriel doesn’t ask anything.

She looks into her cousin’s eyes, and sees he doesn’t want to know.

* * *

By the time his cousin is back in the UK, Gabriel’s already gotten used to checking up on her.

It’s expensive, to call internationally, but they both need it, both need to talk and talk and talk until their minds go numb from all they’ve said.

Gabriel thinks that if their mothers hadn’t run to different continents, they might have grown up  _ together _ , like some of the Blackwood cousins did. He’s slowly gotten used to meeting his cousins, after all this time, even though he’s never met a single one of them beyond Shoshannah or Zanna before this. They’re rambunctious, and kind, and soft, and sweet, and he wouldn’t trade any one of them for the world, but there’s a few he’s closer to than others.

Shoshannah, obviously, is always there. They cling to each other like shadows whenever they’re in the same vicinity. Maybe it’s just the fact that Gabriel is quiet when Shoshannah needs quiet, or Shoshannah is loud when Gabriel needs to drown out the sound of his own head. Maybe it’s something else, something about how related Moondancers work together as a unit, no matter how far apart they are, and the closer they’re related to each other, the better, because who better to watch your back than your sibling, and if not a sibling, a cousin will do-

Davina “Call Me Davie” Simon is a sweet pup, as well- one of the three that’s younger than he is (somehow). She’s got a formidable amount of energy and a sharp-toothed smile that Gabriel knows well enough to find frightening, and revolution is like alcohol to her- he can smell it on her breath.

Davie, though- Davie’s hurt is so much like his own, the feeling of  _ why didn’t anybody help me _ . Her grudges run deep, though, and Davie’s angry where Gabriel isn’t, a chant bubbling up beneath her chest where she wants to scream and shout until everybody hears her.

Gabriel’s never been angry. Gabriel’s not sure he  _ can _ get angry, anymore, so his second cousin with the eyes that he can’t exactly describe beyond  _ orange _ (seriously?  _ orange _ ?) gets angry for him, even when he should be getting angry for himself. There’s pity, in Davie’s eyes, when she looks at him, and it’s that pity that makes him more upset than the perceived slights ever could.

Gabriel slinks back to Boston, and calls his cousin when he can, and promises to let Davie know if he’s ever in Brooklyn for work (even though he  _ definitely wouldn’t _ , because he’s not telling anyone beyond Zanna and Zehavi and Shoshannah about what they all do for a living).

Maybe he should have asked Aviv what his future is going to bring, what she’d like to steer him towards. But Gabriel doesn’t  _ want _ to know, doesn’t  _ want _ to spend decades fussing over something that’s going to happen eventually.

He’ll take what he can get, thank you very much.

**Author's Note:**

> okay, so this was originally supposed to be a lot more angsty, with gabriel opening up about his garbage fire of a foster mom, but that's what he has therapy for.  
> Fun fact: Aviv is from TTR, primarily, but it tracks that she'd try to tell family what to do when so nobody screws up too bad.


End file.
